School Again!

It's that time of year! My kids started school last week!

My first grader dreaded school all summer long but seemed excited on the first day.


My preschooler is attending the same school three days a week as well (in the mornings.) He was extremely excited to be able to go as he's been sitting in the back seat watching us drop off and pick up his brother for three years already!



Speaking of transporting kiddos to school, I've been bringing one of my kids back and forth to school now every day during the school year since 1990. I mean, not a year has gone by that I didn't have a kid in school during that time. Of course, I'll be continuing to do that for another decade or so until one of the boys gets his license...that'll make 30 plus years that I will be bringing a kid back and forth to school!

Recently, my mother-in-law has been getting weaker and a hospital bed has been moved into her room to make it easier for her to get in/out of bed (as well as safety reasons.) It's incredible that just around two and a half years ago, she was diagnosed with having Alzheimers.

This is a pic of her and her husband around WWII.


And this is her now...sleeping hard at 4pm while my kids played (happily and not quietly) for 45 minutes as she slept.


As much as I love this place that cares for her, she'll be there for 4 more months and then we'll move her to a nursing home, thereby applying for assistance (and can then quit paying so much out of pocket.) She's incontinent and unable to walk so she spends most of her time in her wheelchair or in her bed, sleeping. It's amazing that it costs appr. $140. a day to care for her...so almost half of that cost comes from us children as her savings was used up last year. I miss her words, her thoughts, her expressions and her personality. While I can catch a glimpse here and there of her happiness or anger, she's like an empty void of a person. I really miss who she was. As she slowly moves on....I look to my own kids (big and old) to see the future.

While we were sitting there playing at her place, I took this pic of my first grader and myself. It's a raw pic (no make-up, barely brushed my hair, lol!) but it's real. (I keep trying to reduce the size of the picture but it wasn't working...sorry.)